Milan Luthria showed great potential in Kuchche Dhaage but comes a cropper with this sickly sweet variation of the Goldie Hawn Starrer “housesitter”. Khushi (rani) is an effervescent and bubbly orphan, bursting with life and with all the mildk of human kindness in her…the sort who usually is stricken by a deadly disease, who after imparting her goodwill to all, departs from this world, leaving tears and handkerchiefs moist with much melodrama. Fortunately, Khushi has no such ailment although perhaps it may have given the film a little more meaning than Chori Chori manages. Khushi’s constant companion is jonathan, a stuffed monkey….puhleeze. Ranbir (Ajay Devgun) is an architect who seems to have got no where in life and is given the thumbs down by nasty girlfriend Pooja (Sonali Bendre) who cannot bear the thought of marrying someone who has achieved nothing and appears to be going no where, despite his show of affection by showing her the house he has built for her on some mountain top in shimla…

Ranbir and Khushi’s path’s cross at a party and after being sacked from her job, realises that she can sneak into Ranbir’s empty half complete abode in Simla. By a miraculous coincidence, Khushi manages to convince Ranbir’s family that she is engaged to him and continues to live in the half built house when one day, Ranbir arrives to find Khushi showering to the strains of lata’s gorgeous apni prem kahaniyan from mera goan mera desh, a highlight of the film. After the usual tu tu main main, Ranbir realises that Khushi could help him win woo Pooja by making her jealous. Miraculously yet again, Pooja and Khushi have already met and instead oif Khushi running a mile for fear of being discovered as a fraid, she invites Pooja for a lunch to tell her of the romantic man that she is engaged to. So Ranbir and Khushi pretend to be engaged in order to make Pooja jealous and Khushi is only too happy to be a part of Ranbir's affectionate family.

The film then follows a formulaic path and we all know what’s going to happen. Khushi helps in rousing the passions in Pooja and Ranbir for each other but falls in love with the man herself. Ranbir is also unsure and seems to veer towards Khushi but is incapable of expressing himself.

Chori Chori has the germ of a decent plot, a plot which if executed properly, could have found an audience. However, the script is such that its all too implausible and Rani’s little orphan Annie act, imparting goodwill everywhere is just too sickly to be either romantic or heartwarming. In fact, its simply tedious. The side characters are clichés of a thousand films and the director even adds an Adnan Sami song on Tiku Talsaniya to bolster proceedings, which is some ways shows his lack of vision as to how his film is to progress further.

Ulitimately, Chori chori is simply a rather innocuous and ordinary film. It chugs along at a decent pace but makes little impression, let down by Luthria’s uneven direction and a script that really stretches the viewer’s patience.

It is indeed Rani’s film and to a great extent, she manages to brighten up the film with her presence. Hers is a decent performance but nothing to write home about as it’s a formulaic role. Ajay Devgun is reasonably good as well. Sonali Bendre plays the tart girlfriend well. Music is bad with not a single song really making an impression. The film has been delayed for a long time but it doesn’t really tell. Unfortunately, a sad waste of what could it could have been.